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The Future of Gooseneck Coffee Co

Over the last weekend, we spent many hours filming a video that catalogs the story of Gooseneck Coffee Co. We wanted to really showcase who we are. Gooseneck is a family, and we spent Friday evening together, our two families hanging out. Our kids played, while we enjoyed coffee and conversation. If you came to the Plymouth Farmers market, you saw our good friend Don with camera in hand capturing where we first started selling our coffee. More importantly, he was capturing the community we’ve been able to be a part of because of our coffee. We were doing all of this to prepare for the next chapter of Gooseneck. If you’ve talked to us at a market before, chances are you asked if our coffee was in any stores, or if you could buy a full cup from us. Unfortunately, each time we’ve had to say no. We haven’t had the capacity or licensing to allow that to happen yet. Now we’re gearing up to make that happen, and we are going to need your help.

What is Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is a way for businesses and start up companies to introduce a new product or products to the market. It can also be used for companies to take a step forward in their business. What makes it unique is that instead of funding these projects traditionally through saving (which can take forever, trust us, we are learning that!), private investors (which could mean giving up some major control over your company), or a business loan, crowdfunding asks a company’s “crowd” to put forward funds for them in smaller amounts. But why would a company’s crowd (following) just give them money? I mean personally, I don’t care how much I like you as a business, I’m not just handing you $50. So, here’s why: reward packages.

Most crowdfunding platforms don’t just ask you for your money, although some do just that with nothing but the intrinsic reward of feeling good about yourself (or the regret!). Gooseneck is working with Kickstarter, which is a platform that allows “backers” to receive rewards for pledging money to the company. We (the project coordinators/company) decide on the packages, the price point, and how many we will offer. This gives us control over giving you the best options of rewards we think you’ll truly enjoy! Of course there will coffee, and in addition to that we’ve got some amazing, newly designed mugs, shirts, and travel mugs as well. On the higher end for reward pledges will be coffee subscriptions, a tasting party, and even the chance to work directly with us to create your own unique coffee blend named by and/or after you! So what’s the catch?

It’s all or nothing.

If we don’t reach our goal, we don’t get any money and you don’t pay anything. The risk for us then is that we’ve done loads of research on products, advertising, video shoots, etc. and there is no guarantee that we make our goal. Now having said that, I understand why Kickstarter uses this model. In our case, if we don’t reach our goal, we don’t have enough money to buy a new roaster (which is why we’re doing this in the first place). Or imagine a company that has a brand new product that has a goal of $30,000. That goal set by the company is carefully decided upon based on loads of factors and research that will allow them to produce that product. If they don’t reach it, they can’t deliver that product. What if they only raised $2000? They wouldn’t be able to manufacture their new product and deliver those rewards to people who backed them. For us, we won’t be able to buy a bigger roaster and roast all of your delicious coffee orders. We also have to have enough money to buy those new merchandise products and ship them. So we’re stuck with this model, but we think it’s our best option right now to take the next step in our journey.

Tuedsay, October 3, it all starts. We think together, with you, we can do it.